STRYKERS MAY HEAD TO IRAQ

General John Abizaid, the new chief of U.S. Central Command, raised a ruckus yes­ter­day when he acknowl­edged that American troops were fac­ing a “clas­si­cal guerrilla-​​type” war in Iraq.
But lost in the fuss over Abizaid’s com­ments was an inter­est­ing bit of news: the Army may soon be send­ing its con­tro­ver­sial, high-​​tech Stryker light armored vehi­cle brigade to help com­bat the Iraqi insur­gents.
Light, mobile, and packed with the lat­est com­mu­ni­ca­tions gear, the eight wheel drive Strykers would seem to be a per­fect fit for the inter­mit­tent, free-​​flowing fight­ing going on in Iraq.
But the vehi­cles — the first new armor to be intro­duced into the Army since the Abrams tank in the 1980’s — have had a rocky recent past. During the Millennium Challenge 2002 war game, for exam­ple, sol­diers com­plained that the Stryker was sus­cep­ti­ble to flat tires, couldn’t hit tar­gets on the run, and would get unbear­ably hot inside — 120 degrees and higher.
And that was dur­ing test­ing in California. Imagine how toasty the Strykers will get in the heat of the Mesopotamian desert.
THERE’S MORE: Two National Guard brigades may also be called up to Iraqi duty. And Phil Carter isn’t too happy about it.

America’s National Guard has already been stretched thin by con­sec­u­tive home­land secu­rity deploy­ments since Sept. 11, known as Operation Noble Eagle. In the California Army National Guard, nearly every com­bat arms unit has already deployed once. The units which have deployed have returned in deplorable con­di­tion, with most sol­diers opt­ing to leave the Guard. There are a num­ber of National Guard units which have been left alone for home­land secu­rity, and these are the likely units to deploy to Iraq. However, even that is a finite sup­ply. If America is to stay in Iraq for the long haul, this solu­tion won’t work.

July 17th, 2003 | War Update | Comments Off Both comments and pings are currently closed.